traditional medicine in the americas
This course examines the history of traditional medicines, the popular attitudes toward them, and the politics of healing after the emergence of American modern medicine in the Americas. By reading historical accounts of different healing traditions, students will observe how different healing traditions propose different ways to understand the world and will learn to situate the history of traditional and complementary medicine within larger fields of inquiry such as the history of medical sciences in the Americas, migration, and cultural history. Additionally, students will read about contemporary issues and debates surrounding traditional medicine such as health autonomy, health disparities, medical pluralism, and globalization. The class readings will include topics such as indigenous medicine, curanderismo, acupuncture, herbal medicine, homeopathy, and santería.
about the instructor
Lecturer in Latinx Studies in the Program in Ethnicity, Race & Migration. Her teaching interests include the history of medicine and mental health, the construction race in the United States, migration, and the politics of health and disease.
Her current project examines the emergence of a Latinx mental health activism during the 1960s and 1970s as an attempt to correct the pseudoscientific theories associating Mexican Americans and Puerto Ricans with mental illness and criminality. By tracing the intellectual debates of psychiatrists and psychologists in Texas, California, and New York, she examines the role of mental health discourses in the construction of the Latinx identity and the inter-ethnic alliances between Mexican Americans and Puerto Ricans Her research was showcased in Nexos-(Dis)capacidades, a blog about mental health, disability, and health policies.
Her current project examines the emergence of a Latinx mental health activism during the 1960s and 1970s as an attempt to correct the pseudoscientific theories associating Mexican Americans and Puerto Ricans with mental illness and criminality. By tracing the intellectual debates of psychiatrists and psychologists in Texas, California, and New York, she examines the role of mental health discourses in the construction of the Latinx identity and the inter-ethnic alliances between Mexican Americans and Puerto Ricans Her research was showcased in Nexos-(Dis)capacidades, a blog about mental health, disability, and health policies.